Happy Birthday Mark Twain!

Samuel Langhorn Clemens was born on this date in 1835.

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Happy Thanksgiving

I am away for the Thanksgiving holidays and will be back on Monday, November 28.

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Before you laugh or worse...

Salmon soda... There are many ideas, most of which are quite poor. There are two tried and true ways of dealing with this problem. Keep all of your ideas to yourself or have so many that nobody remembers the boneheaded ones and one can be remembered for the good or great ones. The man whose life occupies much of my working life once tried to get someone to manufacture chocolate covered fish.

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Five Must (Ought to) Reads

Here are five sites that are worth bookmarking (four have RSS feeds.)

1. Swans (www.swans.com) is a biweekly journal of politics and culture. It is wide ranging and thoughtful and you can sign up to have it sent to your inbox. I find myself racing to read it the moment it arrives.

2. Tiny Words (http://tinywords.com) is an (almost) daily haiku. It is available for syndication via RSS. It is a small treat to help start the day.

3. Grow-A-Brain (http://growabrain.typepad.com/growabrain/) is a brief look at a wide range of topics. Both funny and thoughful it is a wonderful source for text, image, and sound on topics that might not be at the top of your to-do list. It is available for syndication via RSS.

4. Iraqi Blogs at Alive in Baghdad (www.aliveinbaghdad.org/aib) is a group blog from Iraq mostly by Iraqis who are writing about their neighborhoods. It is a different perspective than what we typically see on the mainstream media. It is available for syndication via RSS.

5. Resource Shelf's DocuTicker (www.docuticker.com) is the document side of the fantastic Resource Shelf. An eclectic range of documents (mostly in pdf) it is useful for matching reports to sources but I usually find one worth reading for myself and I always find something that a friend or colleague will appreciate reading. It is available for syndication via RSS.

OK, I said five but here is another...

6. Crooked Timber (http://crookedtimber.org) is a group blog which covers ideas and higher education (which is not always contradictory.) Good thoughtful work. Also available via RSS.

Recommended Link--Chromasia

On the right hand margin of this blog I have a list of links broadly categorized. There is a lot there and I don't expect to appeal to those who don't make the time or effort to find things out. G. B. Shaw is supposed to have criticized learning in schools by suggesting the learning should be as enjoyable as having sex. It is a pity that there are so many who feel that both activities should be accomplished quickly and with limited effort.

One of the categories is under the heading of "[fill in the blank] A Day." Today's recommended link is to a photography page that is simply wonderful. Bookmark this one.

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Timor mortis conturbat me.

Dylan Thomas: Born October 27, 1914, Swansea, Glamorgan [now in Swansea], Wales
died November 9, 1953, New York, New York, U.S.

Kenneth Rexroth wrote "Thou Shalt Not Kill" about Thomas.


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Babson Football Ranked 10th in 1985 Pre-Season Poll.

Christine Drew, a great librarian at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), passed along this wonderful gem. It seems that in a 1985 preseason poll published in the Boston Globe Babson was ranked 10th in New England Division III football.

At my institution the freshmen students are required to take a course where they form a business. A great item developed by one of those businesses a few years ago was a football jersey celebrating Babson Football as "undefeated since 1919." That is a big hint to the humor of the story.


Christine's source was Robert Sullivan's column in the October 7, 1985 issue of Sports Illustrated. (Expanded Academic ASAP document #: A3971083)